The One is the identity of Transcendens-Immanens. Far (external) as Transcendens, It becomes close (internal) as Immanens. This closeness entitles us to try to express the One. Reason, will and - involving both, in sacrum area - faith can testify of the One. It is previous to every philosophical discourse, which is asking about the principle of universe (arche). The One is previously given and - at least implicite - present in discourse. It is also, exactly as arche, the completion of this discourse. In the philosophy, which starts from and completes on the One, we can see the structural conflict between dualistic form of principium rationis and the trend to unity. However, this conflict seems to be the strength of the philosophy, when it assumes the positive shape of balance between rationality and extrarationality (existence). The One cannot be comprehended in rational way, because principium rationis invariably imposes to consider the One in contrast to multiplicity. „The One” in such understanding is not Transcendens (-Immanens), while entangled in dualism. Only in the symbiosis of rational and existential orders (thanks to mentioned balance) the One can overcome the rational determinateness. Then It reveals itself in eschatological dimension as Deity; the philosophical space becomes the religious space. Mystical experience takes place of meditation, becoming a kernel of faith - ultimate care. The commonness of ultimate care experience, which is known by every man, tends to stand for mystical egalitarianism, which means recognition of mystical state as the experience inherent connected with the human fate. As an expression of Transcendens-Immanens, the One calms. The One is a password (word of passing) ciphering arche of philosophy and Deity of religion. Reading of this cipher requires the cooperation of reason and existence - thinking and participation.
Sayings Thales preserved in the writings of Aristotle, who relies on the tradition. Noteworthy is the fact that Aristotle did not mention any work of Thales, and when he examines his views, based as he says on the tradition. Kirk and Raven extensively analyzing the writings of Thales did not come to no decision, saying that existed in the ancient belief that all of the seven sages laid the rather maxims, which makes it very difficult test. It's likely that there were some advice Thales for sailors in written form, but it is unclear whether he wrote them himself or someone else. It is also difficult to decide what meaning would the existence of a guide for sailors by the Thales for its cosmological views, it is difficult to suppose that someone taught his metaphysical views in a work of this kind. Seneca, Plutarch, Diogenes, Cicero essentially repeated the words of Aristotle does not provide anything new.
Parmenides in his revolt of the first philosophy discarded the principle - arche and introduced in its place being - to eon. The effectivess of this revoltion of thought rested upon - among others - revealing a permanent connection between logic and ontology which connection was most seen in ‘signs of truth’, i.e. features of being. Two of these features - ‘unborn’ and ‘indesrtructible’ - show in a sense entanglement in the context of time whose consideration requires the analysis of Parmenides’ poem and insight into historical-philosophical development of the notion of time from the perspective of its use by natural philosophers in defining the principle - arche.
PL
Parmenides dokonując rewolty filozofii pierwszej odrzucił pojęcie zasady – arche, a na jej miejsce wprowadził byt – to eon. Skuteczność tej rewolucji myślowej oparta była miedzy innymi na ujawnieniu trwałego związku pomiędzy logiką i ontologią, który to związek realizował sie w najwyższym stopniu w „znakach prawdy”, czyli cechach bytu. Dwie z tych cech – ‘niezrodzony i niezniszczalny’ – w pewnym aspekcie ujawniają uwikłanie w konteks czasowości, którego rozpatrzenie wymaga analizy samego poematu Parmenidesa, jak i wglądu w historyczno-filozoficzny rozwój pojęcia czasu w perspektywie jego zastosowania przez filozofów przyrody w definiowaniu zasady – arche.
The paper attempts to reconstruct Thales’ argument about water, which is rightly considered to be the core of his philosophy of nature. It consists of two separate arguments – one biological and the other physical – which ascribe to water two different functions: in the first case, it is a source of life on the earth or, in another version, a source of life of the earth in its entirety; in the second case, it is something that supports the earth in its stationary position in the cosmos. These two arguments indicate that Thales’ notion of water was meant to answer more than just one question about nature. This, in turn, might justify the use of the concept of arche, which Aristotle attributed to the Ionian philosophers, even though Thales had obviously never used the term. The concept may somehow accurately render Thales’ more general view of water. It should be noted, however, that if the term arche can be applied to Thales’ views, then it is only in the sense related to the “coming-to-be”. Thales’ arguments did not apply – contrary to what some doxographers said and what certain scholars still maintain – to the question of the end, or perishing of physical things, the problem taken up only by later Ionians. To put it differently, Thales never claimed that the physical things which die or undergo destruction change into water.
The purpose of this article is an attempt to present one fundamental problem: identifi cation of the essential features of the arché in Milesian philosophers of nature by indicating possible relationships with theology. The theological interpretation of the Milesians indicates that arché does not merely have a material dimension, it is inherently external, going beyond, and consequently, the original principle contains a peculiar transcendence. In the concepts of natural philosophers, there is an archaic path to immortality, infi nity, and eternal existence, which are, in essence, divine attributes. There is a clear search to determine the relationship of divine sphere of existence with the world that we know from everyday experience. This means that the Milesians have found a plane on which the divine sphere and the temporal sphere can meet. There are certain frameworks within which there is an interaction between the divine element (constant and invariant) and temporal (transient and fi nite).
The primary ideal of philosophical investigations was focused on seeking for causes which existed in the world of nature. First attempts were concentrated on discovering a basic constructive element (proto-element), which also was to be the primitive principle (ajrchv) of life and transformations in the world. That current was represented by such philosophers as Heraclitus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras or Diogenes of Apollonia, who endeavored to describe the reality and its intrinsic processes in a broader causal context. They emphasized mate-rial and dynamic causes for originating things and keeping them in existence – causes which transcended a homogeneous principle. The variety of phenomena in the world demanded to seek for causes of different kinds, and became a sig-nificant step for understanding the reality in a strictly philosophical way. With having distinguished functions of causes, mentioned thinkers gave a solid foun-dation for understanding cause as aijtiva in later philosophy (of Plato and Aris-totle). According to first philosophers, however, the existence and function of causes remained completely dependent on the material component of the reality, which proved that pre-Socratic philosophy was entirely dominated by the physi-cal view of the world.
Artykuł poświęcony jest przybliżeniu problematyki powstania europejskiej nauki i filozofii, które zostały ufundowane przez antycznych Greków. W okresie nazywanym Pierwszym Oświeceniem doszło, z jednej strony do stopniowego odejścia od mitologicznych wyjaśnień rzeczywistości, z drugiej – do zbudowania nowego sposobu patrzenia na świat, zwanego badaniem przyrody. Dociekania antycznych Greków miały wymiar ontologiczny – polegały na poszukiwaniu arche świata – poszukiwali oni bowiem ostatecznej struktury rzeczywistości, a co ważne, człowiek usytuowany był w tych badaniach jako integralna ale nie najważniejsza część kosmosu, poddana jego prawom. Presokratycy nie stawiali człowieka ponad naturą, nie odróżniali bowiem ściśle praw przyrody od praw wspólnoty. Był to jeden z powodów, dla których nie powstała wówczas nauka prawa. Poza tym, Grecy nigdy nie redukowali swojego prawa do systemu, ponieważ zbyt często bogowie lub demos „wtrącali się” do praw polis. Było ono typowym przykładem „prawa bez prawoznawstwa”, ponieważ było elastyczne a także posiadało niejasno sformułowane reguły i instytucje. Istotny był tutaj również brak wyszkolonej grupy zawodowych prawników. Okres ten zakończył się wraz z pojawieniem się filozofii Sokratesa. Do jego czasów filozofia badała liczby i ruchy, a także zajmowała się zagadnieniem, skąd wszystkie rzeczy biorą swój początek i dokąd znikają; obserwowała też gwiazdy, odległości między nimi, ich obiegi oraz badała zjawiska pojawiające się na niebie. Pierwsi mędrcy uważali, że zdobywają wiedzę przez prowadzenie badań dotyczących samych zjawisk naturalnych. Sokrates odrzucił ontologię i badanie natury zapoczątkowane przez Milezyjczyków i myślicieli z obszaru Wielkiej Grecji, na rzecz poszukiwania znaczenia słów i pojęć występujących w języku ateńskiego polis. Sądził bowiem, że znalezienie znaczenia słów oznacza odsłonięcie rzeczywistości, do której inaczej dotrzeć nie można.
EN
The paper is devoted to the issues of the emergence of European science and philosophy, founded by the ancient Greeks. In the period known as the First Enlightenment, there was, on the one hand, a gradual departure from the mythological explanations of the reality, and, on the other, the construction of a new way of looking at the world, known as the study of nature. The inquiries of the ancient Greeks had an ontological dimension; they consisted in searching for the arche of the world and they were looking for the ultimate structure of reality, and, what is important, the human being was situated in these studies as an integral, but not the most important part of the Cosmos, subject to its laws. Presocratics did not put the human being above nature, because they did not strictly distinguish between the laws of nature and the laws of community. This was one of the reasons why the science of law did not arise at that time. Besides, the Greeks never reduced their right to the system, because too often gods or demos ‘interfered’ with the laws of the polis. It was a typical example of “law without jurisprudence”, because it was flexible and had vaguely formulated rules and institutions. Another significant factor here was the lack of the trained group of professional lawyers. This period ended with the advent of Socrates’ philosophy. Up to his time, philosophy had studied numbers and movements, and had dealt with the question of where all things have their origin and where they disappear; it also had observed the stars, the distances between them, their circuits, as well as had studied phenomena which appear in the sky. The early sages believed that they could gain knowledge by conducting research into natural phenomena themselves. Socrates rejected the ontology and study of nature initiated by the Milesians and other early Greek thinkers in favour of searching for the meaning of words and concepts found in the Athenian polis language. He believed that finding the meaning of words translated into revealing the reality which could not be reached otherwise.
The article analyses the nature of ancient philosophy. What was it? Was it a search for the truth of the nature? Or was it more a lifestyle, consciously chosen and developed? Th e above interpretations are considered as contradictory. However, in my opinion, in Greek philosophy world and man were not distinct from each other. Th e Greeks saw universe as a unity encompassing everything that exists, including human beings and even gods. Greek philosophers were interested not only in physical world; they focused also on a question how a man should live. With time, this question became the most important: philosophy became a way of intellectual and spiritual exercise, leading to a good life and finally to happiness. I stress this ‘exercising’ dimension as inseparable from all philosophical inquiry in antiquity.
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